IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v197y2025i3d10.1007_s10551-024-05796-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can Good Information Prevent Misconduct? The Role of Organizational Epistemic Virtues for Ethical Behavior

Author

Listed:
  • Marco Meyer

    (University of Hamburg)

  • Tong Li

    (University of Hamburg)

Abstract

This study explores epistemic virtue as a new lens to scrutinize organizational behavior. Organizational epistemic virtues are the qualities of organizations that support the creation, sharing, and retaining of knowledge. We study how well organizations handle information and if that can prevent organizational misconduct. We propose a theoretical framework to link epistemic virtue to the prevention of misconduct and test this model using data from 822 U.S. companies. These companies are scored on six epistemic virtues by analyzing over one million online employee reviews using natural language processing. We focus on the epistemic virtues of curiosity, epistemic beneficence, epistemic justice, epistemic integration, humility, and open-mindedness. We find that companies with these virtues engage in less corporate misconduct, measured in terms of the number of penalties imposed by government agencies. We also give practitioners a framework to assess the epistemic virtues of organizations.

Suggested Citation

  • Marco Meyer & Tong Li, 2025. "Can Good Information Prevent Misconduct? The Role of Organizational Epistemic Virtues for Ethical Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 197(3), pages 489-504, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:197:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-024-05796-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-024-05796-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-024-05796-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-024-05796-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gazi Islam, 2022. "Business Ethics and Quantification: Towards an Ethics of Numbers," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 176(2), pages 195-211, March.
    2. Solomon, Robert C., 1992. "Corporate Roles, Personal Virtues: An Aristotelean Approach to Business Ethics," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(3), pages 317-339, July.
    3. Raghunandan, Aneesh, 2021. "Financial misconduct and employee mistreatment: evidence from wage theft," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 109863, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Hales, Jeffrey & Moon, James R. & Swenson, Laura A., 2018. "A new era of voluntary disclosure? Empirical evidence on how employee postings on social media relate to future corporate disclosures," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 68, pages 88-108.
    5. Eugene Soltes, 2019. "The frequency of corporate misconduct: public enforcement versus private reality," Journal of Financial Crime, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 26(4), pages 923-937, October.
    6. Christopher Baird & Thomas S. Calvard, 2019. "Epistemic Vices in Organizations: Knowledge, Truth, and Unethical Conduct," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(1), pages 263-276, November.
    7. Aneesh Raghunandan, 2021. "Financial misconduct and employee mistreatment: Evidence from wage theft," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 867-905, September.
    8. Boudewijn Bruin, 2013. "Epistemic Virtues in Business," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 113(4), pages 583-595, April.
    9. Mussell, Helen, 2021. "The Silenced and Unsought Beneficiary: Investigating Epistemic Injustice in the Fiduciary," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 31(4), pages 549-571, October.
    10. Miguel Alzola, 2008. "Character and Environment: The Status of Virtues in Organizations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 78(3), pages 343-357, March.
    11. Joanna Crossman & Vijayta Doshi, 2015. "When Not Knowing is a Virtue: A Business Ethics Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 131(1), pages 1-8, September.
    12. Dempsey, James, 2015. "Moral Responsibility, Shared Values, and Corporate Culture," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(3), pages 319-340, July.
    13. Zaman, Rashid & Atawnah, Nader & Baghdadi, Ghasan A. & Liu, Jia, 2021. "Fiduciary duty or loyalty? Evidence from co-opted boards and corporate misconduct," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    14. Dennis W. Campbell & Ruidi Shang, 2022. "Tone at the Bottom: Measuring Corporate Misconduct Risk from the Text of Employee Reviews," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(9), pages 7034-7053, September.
    15. Toby Newstead, 2022. "Being Explicit About Virtues: Analysing TED Talks and Integrating Scholarship to Advance Virtues-Based Leadership Development," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 181(2), pages 335-353, November.
    16. Katalin Takacs Haynes & Michael A. Hitt & Joanna Tochman Campbell, 2015. "The Dark Side of Leadership: Towards a Mid-Range Theory of Hubris and Greed in Entrepreneurial Contexts," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(4), pages 479-505, June.
    17. Emma Borg & Bradford Hooker, 2019. "Epistemic Virtues Versus Ethical Values in the Financial Services Sector," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 17-27, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marco Meyer & Chun Wei Choo, 2024. "Harming by Deceit: Epistemic Malevolence and Organizational Wrongdoing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 189(3), pages 439-452, January.
    2. Christopher Baird & Thomas S. Calvard, 2019. "Epistemic Vices in Organizations: Knowledge, Truth, and Unethical Conduct," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(1), pages 263-276, November.
    3. Lisa Warenski, 2024. "Organizational Good Epistemic Practices," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 194(3), pages 485-500, October.
    4. Natalie Victoria Wilmot, 2024. "Language as a Source of Epistemic Injustice in Organisations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 195(2), pages 233-247, November.
    5. Erwan Lamy, 2023. "Epistemic Responsibility in Business: An Integrative Framework for an Epistemic Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 183(1), pages 1-14, February.
    6. Duong, Huu Nhan & Khalifa, Mariem & Sheikhbahaei, Ali & Sualihu, Mohammed Aminu, 2024. "Corporate noncompliance: Do corporate violations affect bank loan contracting?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    7. Darendeli, Alper & Fiechter, Peter & Hitz, Jörg-Markus & Lehmann, Nico, 2022. "The role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) information in supply-chain contracting: Evidence from the expansion of CSR rating coverage," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(2).
    8. Vita Akstinaite & Graham Robinson & Eugene Sadler-Smith, 2020. "Linguistic Markers of CEO Hubris," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 167(4), pages 687-705, December.
    9. Walaa Wahid ElKelish*, 2023. "Accounting for Corporate Human Rights: Literature Review and Future Insights," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 33(2), pages 203-226, June.
    10. Sarker, Md Showaib Rahman & Mazumder, Sharif & Amin, Md Ruhul, 2023. "Oil price uncertainty, workplace misconduct, and cash holding," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    11. Andrew Abela & Ryan Shea, 2015. "Avoiding the Separation Thesis While Maintaining a Positive/Normative Distinction," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 131(1), pages 31-41, September.
    12. Unsal, Omer, 2023. "Corporate crimes and innovation: Evidence from US financial firms," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    13. Tina Sendlhofer, 2020. "Decoupling from Moral Responsibility for CSR: Employees' Visionary Procrastination at a SME," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 167(2), pages 361-378, November.
    14. Jake Thomas & Wentao Yao & Frank Zhang & Wei Zhu, 2022. "Meet, beat, and pollute," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 1038-1078, September.
    15. Mark E. Lokanan, 2023. "Incorporating machine learning in dispute resolution and settlement process for financial fraud," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 6(2), pages 515-539, October.
    16. Pablo Sanz & Joan Fontrodona, 2019. "Moderation as a Moral Competence: Integrating Perspectives for a Better Understanding of Temperance in the Workplace," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(4), pages 981-994, April.
    17. Tsang, Albert & Wang, Yujie & Xiang, Yi & Yu, Li, 2024. "The rise of ESG rating agencies and management of corporate ESG violations," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    18. Zaman, Rashid, 2024. "When corporate culture matters: The case of stakeholder violations," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(1).
    19. Marina Balboa & Germán López-Espinosa & Antonio Rubia, 2012. "Non-linear Dynamics in Discretionary Accruals: An Analysis of Bank Loan-Loss Provisions," Faculty Working Papers 07/12, School of Economics and Business Administration, University of Navarra.
    20. Ali Ünal & Danielle Warren & Chao Chen, 2012. "The Normative Foundations of Unethical Supervision in Organizations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(1), pages 5-19, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:197:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-024-05796-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.